EPA Ordered to Move on Methane Regs; Mexican Sugar Ban

**A court has ordered the EPA to move forward with regulations on methane pollution from oil and gas production.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 the agency improperly delayed compliance with a methane rule issued by the Obama administration in 2016 requiring oil and gas companies to be in compliance by June.

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt announced in May the agency would stay the rule for 90 days because the industry wasn’t properly allowed to comment on the final regulations.

**Senators from the drought-stricken Dakotas and Montana were pressing for more relief for livestock operators at a recent Senate Ag Committee hearing.

North Dakota Senator Heidi Heitkamp urged Senators to give ranchers, who are currently making it just day to day, to give them access to Conservation Reserve Program lands for grazing.

She and South Dakota Senator John Thune said Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue should also allow emergency haying in addition to the emergency grazing expansion.

**New restrictions on Mexican sugar imports is putting a strain on American companies that make cookies, cakes, doughnuts, bread and candy are running out.

That’s according to Rick Pasco, president of the Sweetener Users Association, who tells the USDA we need to allow more sugar imports from countries that have it.

Pasco says food companies like to see the stocks-to-use ratio minimum of 15.5%, but the latest report puts it at just 12.3% and predicts it will drop to 8.8% within a year.